Forever Isn't Long Enough
by Silverflare07
Summary: Nightwing walked towards her (Starfire) 'Time's run out' He handed her the clock. 'But hope is forever'


**Disclaimer:**  The Teen Titan's don't belong to me...but if they did...

**Summary: ** An alternate ending to 'How Long Is Forever' (which has officially become my new favorite episodes (first I loved 'Sisters' (What can I say *shrugs* I'm a sucker for fluff...))) Anyways a little...tweaking here and there. Lots of R/S fluff and even some BB/R fluff...   
P.S. The name has *nothing* to do with the story it was just a song that a friend thought would go really well with Nightwing's feeling in the episode.

**Title: **Forever Isn't Long Enough

**Author:** qtloveskittles

**Dedication: **Well...I guess I should dedicate this to Busbuddy since she got me hooked on Teen Titans, but... well I haven't written any WAFF in awhile so...

**Author's note: **Nothing to really say here well except maybe... is it just me or did it seem like Nightwing (I will never get used to calling him that) sorta...kissed Star at the end when she was about to walk through the wormhole. I think they must have cut it out. He was like all close and then backing away... (when I first saw I was like 'did I blink or something?' so did my mom. I made her watch it.)

**Extra info: **No extra info...just plain old Star/Rob/Nightwing fluff (Star/Rob/Nightwing...sounds like a love triangle...except you know Rob/Nightwing are the same person...yeah I'm gonna shut up now.

**Stuff you need to know:**

          " "- speech

          Thoughts are in _italics_

~*~ means time changes (just from future to present and back)

          ~ means scene change in the same time period.

**ON WITH THE FIC!**

~*~

Starfire watched, eyes wide, as the wormhole, her only way home, began to grow smaller. If it disappeared completely she would never get back home. No it could not! She took a step forward. She was ready to step through when Nightwing's voice stopped her.

"You can't go through there Star."

She turned to him eyes shinning. "But why?"

"If you do it'll take you 80 years into the future. Not 20 years into the past." Cyborg explained.

Tears gathered in her eyes. She could not get back...

"I can never go home?" Her voice wavered and Nightwing took a step towards her.

Cyborg picked up the broken device that Warp had used to manipulate the flow of time and examined it closely.

"I dunno...I can try to fix it but I'm not making any promise."

That was it. The last straw for Starfire. First her friends had to suffer this terrible future and now she would be stuck here forever? She could never go home and fix everything? The tears Starfire had been fighting to hold back spilt over and she buried her face in her hands.

"No." Her voice was muffled by her hands. "No...it cannot be true."

She felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her and draw her close.

"It's okay Star." Nightwing's voice reached her through her sobs. "Cyborg's gonna try and fix. You'll see everything will be fine."

But his words did nothing to console her so he simply allowed her to cry into his shirt. 

~

Hours later Starfire had cried herself to sleep and was cradled in Nightwing's arms, Cyborg was working on fixing the device that would send Starfire home and Beast Boy was cuddled in Raven's lap, as a kitten of course.

"Done!" Cyborg held up the fixed device with pride.

"So Star can leave...?" It didn't escape Cyborg how Nightwing's grip on the sleeping girl tightened. As if Reading his mind Cyborg gave his friend a sympathetic look.

"You have to let her go man."

"But it's not fair. For twenty years the only thing I could think of was why! Why did time take her from me? How could it take her from me so easily?"

Cyborg nodded. He understood. "I know. But she can't stay here. She's still 16 years old. She needs the us from the past..."

"Robin." Starfire breathed out his name in her sleep.

"She needs the _you_ from the past."

Nightwing nodded fighting back tears. "I know it just...hurts."

Cyborg's grim face said that he knew and he agreed. "I'm going to let her sleep. But... when she wakes up the choice of when she leaves is up to her. Don't try and stop her."

Cyborg walked away leaving Nightwing to his thoughts.

~

Starfire's first thought when she awoke was that it had all been a crazy dream. When her eyes adjusted to the light and she saw Nightwing looking down at her she it had happened.

"Good you're up." She turned her head to see Cyborg holding up the repaired device. "You can go home whenever you're ready."

She jumped up, her hands clasped in joy. "I am ready!"

Cyborg nodded and attached the device to his sonic cannon.   
  


"Alright. I'm redirecting the wormhole. Step in when you're ready."

Starfire didn't hesitate to walk towards the portal, but she turned to give everyone a sad glance. 

"Friends, must this truly be our future? Is there nothing I can do?"

Nightwing walked towards her. "Time's run out." He handed her the clock of eternity. "But hope is forever."

Starfire smiled through tears. "Goodbye...Nightwing."

Nightwing leaned towards her and gently placed his lips on hers. "It's Robin. It'll always be Robin." 

She looked at him, eyes wide, for a moment before throwing her arms around his neck. He was so shocked that by the time he could react she had let go and stepped through the portal.

"Star..."

~ in the wormhole ~

Starfire was pulled along the wormhole by its mysterious force and was tumbling head over feet in the air. She squeezed her eyes shut and clucked the clock to her chest and waited for the tumbling stop.

After a moment she slowed to a stop and was simply hovering. She opened her eyes slowly and looked around. It looked the same as it had before. She turned and flew in the direction of her time Nightwing...Robin's words ringing through her head.

_Hope is forever._

She smiled.

"Just like our friendship."

~ 20 years earlier ~

Robin watched, eyes open in horror, as Starfire got up and flew towards Warp. A second later he realized what she planning to do. But she couldn't! She would get sucked into the wormhole.

Running faster then he ever had before he chased after her too scared to will his voice to will his voice to yell her name.  He saw her near the wormhole and jumped and reached out to grab her. Just a few more inches and he'd have her. His eyes widened in horror as he grabbed for her foot and his hand closed around thin air. He flew through the empty air where the wormhole had been and was met with the cold metal of the museum floor when he landed. He stared at where the wormhole had once been Warp's voice ringing through his head.

_100 years in the future._

_100 years in the future._

_100 years in the future._

A terror unlike one he had ever known penetrated his very being with his next thought.

I'll never see her again... 

"STARFIRE!"

And then he saw it. Behind a bewildered Beast Boy and Cyborg the wormhole opened and Starfire came flying out of it. She landed on her knees as Robin ran over to where Beast Boy and Cyborg were and Raven hovered above them a worried look on her normally expressionless face.

~

Starfire was thrown out of the wormhole with as much force as last time. This time however instead of meeting with cold snow she landed on cold aluminum floor. She hugged the clock to her chest and whispered:

"History said it disappeared. But history was wrong!"  

She slowly looked up to see if she had been sent to the right time.

She had!

Her ye turned to where Beast Boy stood young, thin, and graced with a head full of hair.

"What the...?"

Her eyes then traveled above him where a purple cape surrounded pale skin and purple hair framed a smiling face that was normally blank or neutral.

"Whoa."

Then she saw Cyborg looking as if he had just been put together. He was still shinning and in perfect condition. No wires stuck out from his back, holding him captive to the tower. And his face was free of the lines of unfair aging.

"How did you...?"

Finally her eyes settled on Robin. His hair was still short and sticking up every which way. He was still dressed in the same outfit, from the red and green suit with large R over the right breast, to the yellow and black cape framing his shoulders, to his black steel-toed boot. His eyes were still hidden behind his mask but his face gave away his emotions. He looked like he was ready to cry.

"Star?"

Almost calmly she set the clock aside and stood up. She walked over to Robin and was glad to see that she had to look down to meet his gaze (aka he's still shorter then her). Her eyes filled with tears as she reached out and traced the outline of his hair, the tips of her fingers just barely brushing the silky blackness. Her hand lowered to trace the edge of his cape along his shoulder until it fell down his back. Then with a carefulness of someone handling a porcelain doll her fingertips brushed against his cheek, it was still smooth with no years of fighting and being alone to harden it. This was Robin.

Her Robin.

Tears ran down her face as she threw her arms around his neck, like she had done to Nightwing moments before, knocking both teens to the ground.

Robin, who was still in shock from seeing the girl fly through a wormhole and out moments later didn't realize she had so much as moved until her sobs registered in mind. Slowly he wrapped his arms around her small frame and tried to calm her down.

"What's the matter Star?"

Her voice was muffled by his shoulder so only he could hear her response. 

"I...I am just glad. Cyborg is undamaged, Beast Boy is not in the zoo, Raven does not believe that I am a figment, and you... you are still you."

By now Robin had regained enough sense to sit up. He brought the crying girl with him so that he was sitting on the floor with his legs out in front of him and she was kneeling next to him crying into his shoulder still locked in his embrace. 

"Don't worry Star, nothing's changed." This time is their teammates heard them.

"Yeah, you weren't gone long enough for anything to change." Cyborg said.

"Dude you were only gone for a minute."

"If that."

Starfire's sobs turned to sniffles and Robin's eyes widen in surprise. She hadn't even been gone for a minute and it had felt like forever. His grip on her tightened subconsciously. If he couldn't be without her for a minute how would he have ever survived the rest of his life? Now wasn't the time to dwell on that though because Starfire had stopped crying, detached herself from Robin, and stood up. He followed the suit.

"Come friends, I have much to tell you of the future." 

She wrapped her arms around Robin's waist and lifted him into the air followed by Raven and Beast Boy who had turned into a giant bird and was carrying Cyborg in his talons. Together the five titans headed for the tower where four of them would be told the story of a lifetime.

~

"And then Nightwing handed me the clock, told me 'hope is forever', and I stepped into the portal."

Starfire's tale came to a close and her friends looked at her wide-eyed. Of course she hadn't told them the whole end encounter with Nightwing but...she wanted to keep that to herself.

"Whoa!" Raven was the first to speak.

Sobbing sounds came from Beast Boy. "BALD! You're telling me I'm going to be BALD!"

Cyborg just sighed. "I guess you were right about that drifting stuff Star."

"I don't ever want that to happen to us." 

Starfire turned to Robin. "Our friendship has foiled Warp's plan. The future has already changed. For the better I am certain."

Raven used her powers to fix the broken necklace. "So, is it too late to celebrate this festival of friends?"

Starfire's smile widened. "It is never too late!" She squealed happily.

Magically Raven dropped a necklace over Beast Boy and Cyborg's head.

"HAPPY BLORTHOG!" Cyborg yelled pulling Raven and Beast Boy into a bone-crushing hug and causing their necklaces to make a tinkling sound.

"Okay...I feel like a wind chime." 

Starfire walked over to Robin and gently placed a necklace over his head. He looked at her and smirked.

"So..._Nightwing_ huh?"

She brought her face down bringing nose to nose. 

"It is Robin. It will always be Robin."

~ 20 years later ~

Four figures watched as the wormhole closed and Starfire left them again. After a few minutes in which nothing happened someone finally spoke up.

"I thought the future was supposed to change?" Beast Boy said his voice low, his eyes sad.

Nightwing smiled as a tingling sensation swept through his chest. "I think it is."

He closed his eyes and let the sensation spread throughout his entire body. When it finally stopped he opened his eyes slowly...and smiled. Next to him Cyborg was looking brand new and more advanced.

"Boo-ya!"

Raven was still wearing her white cloak but the hood was down and she was smiling. Her hair was long and framed her face ending where her hand was clasped in Beast Boys.

"It...worked."

And Beast Boy, in all his glory, was standing tall, taller then Raven even. He was thin and still had his boyish appearance but his eyes held a kind of wisdom that only comes with age. He brought a hand to the top of his head and was pleased to realize that his hair was still there.

"Yes!"

The titans turned to Nightwing. He didn't look any different but...

"Can you guys remember the past 20 years?"

Cyborg nodded. "Yeah, with and without her."

Raven agreed. "But it seems like the 20 years without her was all just some crazy dream. The details are fading from my memory as we speak."

Robin and Beast Boy nodded.

"Does that mean-" Robin was cut off by a shout from above.

"Friends!"

A figure floated down towards them her red hair blowing out behind her, green eyes sparkling with happiness. She touched down and ran into Nightwing's open arms.

"Starfire!"

She giggled. "I am sorry I am late."

She turned to face the others and Nightwing's arm encircled her waist.

"I believe I succeeded in changing the future."

They looked out a large window and could see the city, still snowy, but with a more cheerful mood. A giant 'T' shaped tower glistened in the distance, looking as if it was still being cared for and lived in.

So...Nightwing..." Beast Boy started but was cut off.

"It's Robin. It'll always be Robin."

Nightwing and Starfire laughed when they realized they had spoken in unison. Beast Boy grinned.

"Okay then. _Robin_...does this mean the Titan's are back together?"

Starfire's eyes traveled to the tall 'T' shaped tower gleaming in the distance then back to her friends. Before Nightwing could answer she replied:

"I do not think we ever split up."

~*~

Okay now I'm going to explain the whole Robin/Nightwing thing (just incase you're wondering). 

Nightwing wanted Starfire and the other Titans to call him Robin to everyone else he was still Nightwing so when I wrote about him doing something or saying something I addressed him as Nightwing. Unless one of the other Titans was talking to him and saying his name Robin wouldn't be used.

Hope that made sense. 

Well R&R and make my day. This was my first Teen Titans fic and it certainly was my best work but I'm proud of it and I hope you like it. Let me know what you think. R&R!!! (I already said that didn't I? *^_^;*)


End file.
